Surely every grower dreams of growing avocados in a pot at home. It seems to beginners in floriculture that it is difficult, and perhaps impossible, to grow this tropical tree in room conditions from a stone. But this is a delusion. Every person who is passionate about indoor floriculture can grow it. True, for this you need to know some of the features of this plant, the secrets of caring for it.
Avocado has broad leaves and flexible stems. This feature of the plant allows you to form original decorative compositions from it. As a rule, three trees are planted in a pot at once, from which cute pigtails are subsequently formed. There is a belief that growing an avocado in a pot at home harmonizes family relationships and creates a pleasant romantic atmosphere.
Where to start?
To begin with, beginner gardeners should be warned that avocados are grown as an ornamental plant in indoor floriculture. It fits perfectly into any interior, creates a special indescribableatmosphere, cleans the air, releasing a lot of oxygen. But even if we grow an avocado from a stone at home in compliance with all the rules, providing the plant with the most thorough care, we are unlikely to see its flowering, let alone fruiting. But after all, we do not always plant a persimmon or orange seed in the hope of getting fruit crops. Unfortunately, a fruitful avocado at home in a pot is rather a rare exception to the rule.
But back to growing a flower. First, you should buy a ripened avocado fruit in the store. To understand how ripe it is, press down on both sides of the fruit with your palms, and then release. A ripe fruit will immediately restore the structure, so it is quite suitable for growing a new plant. If you had to buy an unripe avocado (there was no other in the store), don't be discouraged - it will ripen over time. This process can be accelerated by placing the fruit next to bananas or apples, as these fruits release ethylene, which promotes ripening.
Sprouting the seed
Don't just try to plant an avocado pit in a pot of soil. It should be prepared in advance. To do this, it is soaked in fairly hot water (but not in boiling water) for half an hour. Then, the shell is removed from the heated bone, the tip is cut off from the narrow side, and the cut is treated with an antifungal drug, which is purchased in advance at any of the specialized stores.
After that, the wide end of the stone is placed a third into the previously prepared soil mixture. Owhat kind of soil an avocado needs in a pot, we will tell a little later. After that, the stone is left alone - before germination, it needs only watering once a week.
Houseplant lovers are using another method of growing avocados in a pot that they find more reliable. Take three or four toothpicks, make punctures in the center of the bone around the perimeter and insert toothpicks into them to a depth of 2-5 mm. This design is placed in a glass of settled water. It should be at room temperature. It is necessary that the blunt end of the bone is in the water, and the punctures are dry.
Many flower growers recommend adding a little charcoal to settled water. If you don't have one, use an activated one. While waiting for the sprout, carefully monitor the quantity and quality of water in the glass. Dust, motes slow down the germination process. Every two or three days, take out the bone and change the water in the glass to fresh. It will take no more than 30 days, and you will see the first young roots, and then the sprout.
When the roots reach four centimeters, the seed is ready for planting in the soil.
Selecting capacity for planting
Look at a sprouted pit and you'll know what kind of pot you need for an avocado. At the first stage of plant development, you will need a small container with a diameter of no more than 12 cm. It is desirable that the pot be with drainage holes. As the flower grows, it will need to be changed to a more spacious one.
Soil preparation
Avocado does not tolerate too heavy, clayey, acidic soils, so earth brought from the garden plot is not suitable for this plant. The soil mixture must be prepared independently. It is necessary to mix equal proportions of peat, garden soil, humus, coarse sand and a pinch of lime.
Since the garden soil can be affected by harmful microbes, the prepared mixture must be disinfected. The day before planting the bone, it must be shed with boiling water. The same soil is also used when planting the bones directly into the ground. The soil should not be too dense. It must be loosened to ensure moisture and air exchange.
Planting in soil
It's time to figure out how to plant an avocado seed at home in the ground. An ordinary plastic pot is suitable for planting. It is better not to use a ceramic container for the first planting, since the walls of such a pot will let in moisture, which is vital for the plant during this period.
The bottom of the pot should not retain moisture and have a drainage layer of special granules or ordinary expanded clay. A stone with a sprout is only a third buried in the soil. This must be done very carefully so as not to damage the young roots.
Plant care: choosing a place for a flower
Knowing how to plant an avocado seed at home, it is important to provide the tree with proper care. This is a light-loving plant, but it also feels quite comfortable in partial shade. direct solarthe rays are fatal to him. The ideal place to place the plant is on the windowsill of a west-facing window.
Temperature
Because the potted avocado is a tropical plant, it is only natural that it likes warmth. With a sharp decrease in air temperature in the room or the slightest draft, the avocado shows its discontent - it simply drops all the leaves. It is for this reason that it is undesirable to take it outside even on warm summer days.
The room should be kept at a constant temperature. In the warm season, high room temperature is favorable for the plant, and in winter, during the dormant period, +20 ° C will be enough for it. If the room temperature drops to +12 ° C, the avocado will react instantly - shed its leaves and “hibernate”. With constant temperature conditions and proper care, this is extremely rare, since the plant is considered evergreen.
How to water an avocado?
Watering avocados at home should be plentiful and regular, but taking into account the time of year and temperature indicators. Over-watering this tropical plant can be harmful. In summer, it is watered more often than in winter. After the top layer of soil dries up, at least two days must pass before it becomes necessary to water the plant - when the top of the soil dries up, the required amount of moisture is contained inside the pot for another two days.
Humidity
For an avocado in a pot, air humidity is also important. In our apartments, the air is almost always quite dry. Daily spraying will help solve the problem. It is important that during these water procedures not the plant itself is moistened, but only the air around it.
Many flower growers prefer a different way of moisturizing. They use a special tray filled with moistened expanded clay.
Fertilizers and top dressings
From mid-September to March, avocados do not need to be fed. The rest of the time, the plant is fed with citrus fertilizer or an infusion of ash is used to feed the plants. It is not difficult to prepare such a composition. To do this, you need to pour three tablespoons (tablespoons) of wood ash with a liter of settled water. Within a week, the composition should be infused. It must be shaken daily so that the particles of ash are evenly dissolved. An infusion of ash for plant nutrition is used once a week. Watering is carried out under the root.
Avocado transplant
Because you are growing avocados from the seed at home, very soon you will be faced with the question of transplanting the plant. Under natural conditions, avocado grows up to twenty meters in height. Although it does not reach such sizes in indoor floriculture, it grows quite actively and needs frequent transplantation.
Very soon the very first small pot will be small. As soon as the tree reaches 15 centimeters in height, it must be transplanted into a large container. A young plant is transplanted annually, and then every threeyear.
The plant is transplanted into a new pot by the transshipment method. Carefully transfer the tree to the prepared container along with a clod of earth, trying not to disturb it. Fill the free space in the pot with new soil.
Diseases and pests
Like most indoor plants, avocados are afraid of many pests - spider mites, scale insects, whiteflies. A voracious and insatiable spider mite can not only destroy all the leaves, but also transfer various diseases to other houseplants. Shchitovka draws juice from plants. After its appearance, dry wrinkled leaves remain on the flowers. The fight against these plants is spraying with insecticidal agents. The drug "Aktara" has proven itself well. Of the diseases, the greatest danger to the plant is powdery mildew.
Possible growing problems
If you notice that the tips of the leaves of the tree are drying, then, most likely, the irrigation regime is violated - the plant does not have enough moisture, low air humidity. You should establish regular watering of the plant and constantly humidify the air in the room.
We have already mentioned that the plant sheds leaves in two cases - when the air temperature in the room drops and in drafts. In this case, there is only one advice - to maintain the temperature regime and put the plant in a place where there are no drafts.
Avocado leaves may turn pale in low light. Find a more suitable place for the plant, and if this is not possible, then additional lighting should be arranged. This isespecially important in winter.
